Empty Spaces
by Lisa Telramor
Summary: Fullmetal Alchemist characters with daemons. Their daemons used to squabble more than they did.


**AN:**_Written for the prompt_**Fullmetal****Alchemist/His Dark Materials, Ed+Al+Winry, Their daemons squabble as much as they do.**

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Ed and Aranka remembered back when they were kids. Aranka and Al's Eirian would skip ahead, chasing each other in form after form while Winry would call out suggestions. Her daemon, Hammond, tended not to take part in those play fights. Instead he would sit on her shoulder as a bird or curl around her ankles as they walked as a cat and laugh at whoever was the loser. If the fighting ever turned serious, Hammond was the one to stop it though.

It had been funny looking back on it. When Ed and Al argued, their daemons would always act the peacekeepers between them, yet they took more potshots and roughhoused more than Ed and Al ever did. Aranka was just like Ed, picking fights with anyone that looked at her wrong, and Eirian had always been bolder than the face Al showed most of the world. She was unerringly blunt and honest and held grudges so long that it made Ed side eye Al and wonder if when he said all was forgiven after fights if he really meant it. Adding Winry and Hammond into the mix always complicated things, leading to squabbles between Ed and Al and even more with Winry. They always lost. It was hard to fight with Winry when she got sad. Even harder when she got angry because she could hit hard. Hammond had a less flashier temper than Winry did, but he had one, getting back for pranks Aranka and Eirian pulled on him in subtle, devastating ways long after the prank had been forgotten.

That balance had been disrupted after they tried to do the impossible.

It still haunted Ed's dreams the way Eirian had dissolved into Dust when Al's body unraveled into the Gate. For months he'd kept Aranka tucked under his clothes, pressed close to his skin to reassure that it hadn't happened to them. That they were still together even if Al wasn't… Al said Eirian was there still. She just wasn't corporeal anymore.

Aranka had settled as snake, an Aesculapian snake. They joked about the irony and symbolism in the form, even more so later when they met homunculi and learned about their distinctive ouroboros tattoo. When they were alone, they sometimes admitted that she had probably settled as a snake because it gave her an excuse to wrap around Ed's remaining flesh arm and cling with her whole being.

Things with Winry and Hammond were a bit off without Eirian adding commentary and prodding Aranka into a rage, but they found their balance like Ed and Al had reworked their relationship with Winry after.

"Winry!" Ed called. They were there because he'd managed to bum up his leg this time rather than his arm. The knee was stuck slightly bent and it felt like having a muscle cramp and hitting his elbow a bit at the same time."Long time no—"

A screw driver ricocheted off the wall next to his raised hand. Ed followed its trajectory back to Winry at the Rockbell kitchen table. She had something dismantled there; screws snug up with a plate of toast and a coffee mug. Her glare said she hadn't drunk even a quarter of the coffee cup yet. Hammond perched on her shoulder, his feathers puffed up. "What the hell did you do to yourself this time?"

"…Hi, Winry," Ed said, much less confident of his welcome. Al closed the door behind them, crowding Ed into the house. Ed hobbled forward on his bad knee.

"It's his leg," Hammond said as Winry tried to focus when she wasn't fully awake. Hammond tipped his beak toward Ed's knee, black feathers ruffling before settling flat again. "Not your arm for once. It adds to variety at least."

Aranka stuck her head out through Ed's sleeve. "Admit it; you love when we come here because you get to fuss." Her tongue flicked out, scenting the air.

Hammond cackled. "If by fussing you mean terrorizing, then yes, that is enjoyable."

"How the heck did you break your leg?" Winry groaned into the mess on the table. "Were you trying to kick a hole to Xing or something?"

"What makes you think it was something I did? Maybe it just broke?" Ed crossed his arms over his chest.

""My craftsmanship doesn't just break, Ed." Hammond hopped from her shoulder to the table as she rubbed at her temples like she had a headache.

"He jumped from three stories and took the fall on that leg," Al said. Exasperation filled his voice. "He's lucky he didn't break both legs."

"It wasn't like I had a choice!" Ed's shoulders crept upward. He tried to get Al between him and Winry—a wrench to the face wouldn't hurt Al near as much as it would hurt Ed. "I didn't realize there wasn't anything below me. I was chasing the idiot that jumped first."

"You're an idiot," Winry muttered into her plate. "I'm going to have to push around my schedule for this…"

"He never did master 'look before you leap,'" Hammond grumbled. "Aranka, still in one piece after that fall?"

"I might not have wings like you, but I'd hardly let myself get crushed from a tumble." Aranka coiled down Ed's flesh arm to his hand. Ed moved without a word to set her on the table. She slithered lazily over to Hammond to look him n the eye. "Don't go molting from worry, hmm?"

"Who is worrying?" His feathers puffed and settled and he preened his wing like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Eirian says you're not fooling anyone," Al said.

Aranka stilled, tongue flickering in and out. Hammond's feathers went flat and tight. Ed felt discomfort and depression warring in the back of his mind. It still felt odd when Al spoke for Eirian, like some kind of boundary was being broken by it. It always reminded Ed about what Al lost. He struggled to put a grin on his face.

"They're right, you're a softie under all that fluff."

Hammond's feathers settled into a more normal fluff as he snorted. "I am all beak and claw," he insisted, and if Aranka doesn't start trying harder to keep you from making stupid mistakes, I might just show her."

"Snakes sometimes eat birds," Aranka said conversationally.

"Ravens eat snakes," he said right back like they hadn't been caught off guard.

"And Eirian would eat both of you," Al said, and it didn't feel quite as out of place as a moment ago.

"She would have settled as a cat, wouldn't she?" Hammond said with a sigh that sounded falsely put upon.

Aranka nodded. "Of course. With Alphonse as her other half, what else could she be?"

"Hey!"

They all laughed and for a moment it felt like when they were kids again, not yet following conventions of not addressing other people's daemons and poking fun equally.

Winry drained her coffee. "Well, you're here now," she said with a half smile. "Let's see what damage you did to that leg." Hammond fluttered to her shoulder again and Aranka returned to curl around Ed's wrist.

When Al offered Ed his arm to help him balance, Ed felt the familiar tingle that he pretended not to notice. Al always pretended right back.

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_**This was supposed to be silly and of course it went down the road of depressing. _ Can't win. A note on names, it took forever to decide what to call the daemons and what daemon Winry had, but only a second to make Aranka a snake. Aranka is a Hungarian name meaning "gold," Hammond is an English name that can mean "high/home protector" (which fit Winry because she kind of is their home), and Eirian is Welsh for "bright" or "beautiful."**_


End file.
